Two more acquisitions by Accenture and another by Intel were the main stories of the international ICT market last week.

At home, it was very quiet.

Key local news

* Very good year-end figures from Adapt IT, with revenue up 35.9% and profit up 40.1%.* A renewed JSE cautionary by Alaris Holdings.* Withdrawn JSE cautionaries by EOH and YeboYethu.* The appointment of Ashely de Klerk as MD of Metrofile Records Management.* The resignation of Mike Buttner, COO of BCX.

Key African news

* The Uganda government has asked the local unit of the MTN Group to list some of its shares on the local stock exchange as a condition for renewing its operating licence.* The appointment of David Helfer as senior VP of sales for EMEA at F5 Networks.

Key international news

* Accel-KKR acquired a majority stake in SugarCRM.* Accenture bought hardware engineering firm Mindtribe and smart embedded software company Pillar Technology.* Best Buy purchased GreatCall, the maker of senior-focused Jitterbug mobile phones, as part of an effort to increase investments in technology that addresses the needs of older people. The deal was worth $800 million.* Cabot Microelectronics acquired specialty chemicals maker KMG Chemicals, in a move aiming to expand the range of products the former supplies to the semiconductor industry. The deal was worth $1.6 billion.* Intel bought Vertex.ai, a start-up developing a platform-agnostic AI model suite.* Veritone purchased Wazee Digital, a provider of video management and licensing services.* CK Hutchison Holdings invested in Nuron, a British start-up that has developed a system for putting fibre-optic cables in much smaller suburban water and waste pipes.* Activist investor Starboard Value made a 5.8% investment in Symantec.* Tsinghua Unigroup made a $95.34 million investment in a 30% stake in Suzhou ASEN Semiconductors, which is wholly owned by ASE Technology Holding.* Accenture made a strategic partnership with Malong Technologies, an artificial intelligence start-up headquartered in China, in which it has also made a minority investment.* Very good quarterly figures from Acter and Nvidia.

Cloud computing ranks as the top risk concern for executives in risk, audit, finance and compliance, according to Gartner.

Research results and predictions

* Worldwide:* Worldwide server shipments, based on the number of motherboards delivered, reached 3.84 million units in Q218, rising 9.6% sequentially, according to Digitimes Research.* Worldwide spending on information security products and services will reach more than $114 billion in 2018, an increase of 12.4% from last year, according to Gartner. In 2019, the market is forecast to grow 8.7% to $124 billion.* Cloud computing ranks as the top risk concern for executives in risk, audit, finance and compliance, according to Gartner.* Worldwide revenue for big data and business analytics solutions will reach $260 billion in 2022, with a CAGR of 11.9% over the 2017-2022 forecast period, according to IDC. BDA revenue is expected to total $166 billion this year, an increase of 11.7% over 2017.* Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $117.9 billion during Q218, up 6% sequentially and 20.5% on year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.